


crushed

by jilliancares



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Embarrassment, Getting Together, LMAO, M/M, Secret Crush, Secrets, but they each think it's someone else, crush reveals, everyone knows keith has a crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-20
Updated: 2018-12-20
Packaged: 2019-09-23 03:52:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17072957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jilliancares/pseuds/jilliancares
Summary: In which everyone on the team realizes that Keith has a crush on someone, and Keith manages to tell each of them that he likes a different person.





	crushed

**Author's Note:**

> this idea popped into my head and i wrote it really fast while waiting for my chinese food. lasjdfk please support my stupid little fic

Keith was in a bit of a pickle.

He still didn’t know how everything had gotten so complicated. Just… one thing had led to another, and certain lies had tripped over and tangled with other ones, and now…

Well, now everyone on the team knew he had a crush. He couldn’t believe he was so obvious about it. He thought he’d been acting normally, the same as he always did, but apparently there was something different about him. When Hunk had confronted him, he’d said he could tell because of how grumpy he’d been acting. And when Shiro had intervened, he’d said it was because he’d noticed Keith blushing – for the first time ever.

Except the worst part wasn’t that everyone knew he had a crush, even though at one point in time, he definitely would’ve thought that that was the worst it could possibly get. No, the worst part of all this was the fact that they each thought he liked _different people_.

Keith wasn’t entirely sure how his mind worked. Each and every time it’d happened – someone cornering him, pestering him, looking at him with those wide, _knowing_  eyes – he’d told himself he wouldn’t tell. Deny, deny, deny. But they’d kept pushing, kept pressing, and finally – just to get them off his back – he’d said a name. A _different_  name, every time. God, he was the absolute worst.

“Just tell me!” Hunk had begged, hands gripping Keith’s shoulders. “I won’t tell anyone, I promise. Plus, wouldn’t it be nice to confide in someone?”

 _Not a chance,_  Keith had thought. And tired of being shaken – because Hunk had literally been shaking him – he’d finally blurted, “It’s Allura, okay?”

And really, it was Hunk’s fault for _believing_  him. Did he really think Keith was straight?

But then it’d happened again. And _again_. With Shiro, all big brotherly and supportive, and then Allura, the nosy gossip. Even Lance had realized something was up, and Keith had actually stuttered and stammered his way through that response, for once.

So now his life was a shit show. He’d told Hunk and Shiro that he liked Allura, who he’d told that he liked Romelle, who he’d told that he liked Pidge – who, by some stroke of luck, hadn’t bothered digging into his love life at all. And then there was Lance, who thought he had a crush on Hunk.

Each and every one of them were trying to help him out, too. Shiro kept pairing him and Allura up on missions, and Allura kept stealing Romelle’s seat at dinner, which meant Romelle ended up sitting next to him. Meanwhile, Romelle had been talking him up to Pidge – _“did you know Keith fixed the laundry shoot?” “I just kicked it, Romelle.” “And yet no one else thought to do that.”_  Everyone was driving him insane, and he didn’t know what to do anymore.

Any interaction with another one of his team members resulted in sly looks being sent his way. Except none of them even knew who he actually liked! It was infuriating, and _weird_ , and this was why he never would’ve told anyone he had a crush if it’d been up to him.

Once, when Hunk had passed Keith the salt at dinner, Lance had kicked Keith’s shin in excitement, and Keith had grimaced at him in the imitation of a smile. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could take this – but then, apparently, he didn’t have to take it anymore. At which point he decided that he could deal with his horrible living situation for forever, please and thank you.

He didn’t know how it came up. The team was just hanging out together in the common room after a mission, which probably wasn’t a good idea, seeing as how hanging out with any of them meant endless suffering. For Keith, at least.

But one moment they were all sitting there, several different conversations happening at once, when Pidge suddenly went and said something along the lines of, “blah blah blah, Keith’s crush.”

(He wasn’t really sure what exactly she said, but he definitely tuned in in time for the end.)

His face went completely red, and he shot her a glare. _Traitor_. Just when he’d thought there was one person who wasn’t interesting in prying in his love life…

“You know about Keith’s crush?” Hunk blurted, because he was horrible at keeping secrets, the bastard.

“ _You_  know?” Lance squawked.

“He came to me first,” Hunk said proudly. _Liar_. He practically assaulted Keith to get the information out of him.

“Uuuhhh…” said Lance, obviously not knowing what to think about Hunk – who Keith supposedly had a crush on – knowing about Keith’s crush. “Okay.” And then he shot Keith a wink. Like, _I get what’s going on. You lied to him – poor guy._

“He most certainly did _not_  go to you first,” Allura protested.

“Yeah, he went to me!” said Romelle. Allura looked shocked. So did Hunk and Shiro.

“Technically, I went to no one,” Keith pointed out.

“Stay out of it, Keith,” Allura snapped.

“Don’t talk to him like that!” Hunk protested, sending Keith a sympathetic look.

“Why? It’s not like he likes me,” she scoffed. And then Hunk’s look turned less sympathetic.

“Uhh…” said Keith.

“Who is it, then?” Hunk asked Allura.

“I can’t tell you – she’s in the room.”

“She?” said Lance, unheard by anyone except Keith, thank God. And then everyone was yelling at each other, and Romelle was standing on the table, shouting, and Lance was sending Keith increasingly suspicious looks.

“GUYS,” Pidge finally shouted. It never failed to shock Keith how such a small body could make such a loud sound. “Obviously, he lied to you.”

“All but one of us,” Hunk said suddenly. “Right?”

Keith was ignoring them. “How about we stop talking about this?” he pleaded. “I didn’t even want to tell any of you in the first place.”

“ _Rude_ ,” Romelle gasped. And then, in her fury, “So you don’t like Pidge?”

Keith’s face was on fire. Pidge was giving him a death glare – like, _how dare you tell someone you had a crush on me. Gross._

Hunk cackled. “No _way_ ,” he said. And, apparently similiarly upset by Keith’s lying, “He likes Allura.”

“He likes _Romelle_.”

“No, it is Allura,” affirmed Shiro.

“It’s HUNK,” Lance insisted. He grabbed Keith’s shoulder. “Right, buddy?”

“I’m sure there’s a simple explanation to this,” Pidge said, pushing up her glasses.

“Yeah, like how Keith obviously can’t be trusted,” Hunk said bitterly. Keith didn’t have it in him to feel guilty.

“It must be Allura, right?” Shiro said. He looked at Keith, then. “Right? You told me _and_  Hunk that you liked her.”

“I don’t like anyone,” Keith claimed, to which he received snorts, laughs, and many eye rolls. Why was that the one lie they wouldn’t accept?

“No, wait…” Pidge said, in her Realization Voice.

“I just realized I forgot something,” Keith said, shooting to his feet.

“Get him!” Romelle yelled, and Lance tackled Keith back onto the couch. He didn’t move, just pinned Keith’s wrists to the couch above his head and pressed his body into Keith’s more firmly, keeping him down.

“Lance, c’mon,” Keith begged desperately.

“Sorry, Mullet,” Lance said, not sounding very sorry at all.

“It’s obvious,” Pidge proceeded. Fuck. _She knows she knows she knows_. “I mean, who’s the one person he didn’t mention?”

“Coran,” Hunk said at the same time that Allura said, “Shiro.” Pidge gagged.

“The one person who _wouldn’t_  be disgusting,” she corrected herself.

“Me,” Lance said, his voice sounding far away, even though he was still just on top of Keith. He sat up, then, and Keith could feel his entire face burning. _Just kill me already_ , he thought desperately. “It’s me,” Lance repeated.

Keith struggled out from under Lance, who let him up with little resistance, and backed away from the couch. Everyone looked vaguely guilty, now, as if realizing that that hadn’t been some sort of fun sort game. Not for him, at least.

“You guys are assholes,” he bit out, before spinning on his heel and stalking down the hall. He got to his room in no time, his gait having turned into more of a run once he was out of view, and he fell into bed fully clothed, clutching a pillow to his chest. He felt like he’d been dipped into a vat of embarrassment. It was clinging to him, dripping from him, and he couldn’t escape it. He couldn’t think about anything else, his mind just playing that stupid scene over and over and over in his head.

His body weighed a ton, was glued to the mattress, and though his eyes felt hot, he couldn’t cry. He just laid there in silence – a panicked, horrified kind of silence – as he thought about what the hell he was going to do tomorrow. Just, what, face the team? Take it in stride? Pretend like it’d never happened?

Someone knocked on the door.

Mortification washed over him, fresh and new, and he hugged his pillow even tighter. “Go away, Shiro,” he said. Shiro was good at reading him. Good at comforting him, too. He could tell when Keith needed a good talk or a hug, knew when to pester Keith into opening up when even Keith didn’t realize it’d be good for him, but this wasn’t one of those times. Right now, Keith just needed to be alone.

Instead, the door slid open. Keith huffed, angry. “I _said_  go away, Shiro,” he spat, sitting up and turning towards the door. And then whatever else he was going to say died in his throat, because that was Lance standing in front of him. Not Shiro.

“Hey,” said Lance. And Keith just sat there, slowly withering away. He was dying, surely? This was what death felt like? “Look,” Lance continued, unprompted. “You don’t need to feel embarrassed.”

“Easy for you to say,” Keith laughed. God, how was he even supposed to talk to Lance anymore? Everything felt so horrible. So _awkward_. “I really just want to be alone right now.”

“Can I just say one thing?” Lance said quickly. Keith closed his eyes, praying for patience, before he nodded with a sigh.

“Yeah. Go ahead.” His eyes were still closed as he waited. As he waited and waited for Lance to speak. But then there were footsteps, and Keith frowned in confusion. And then there was a hand on his chin, and Keith’s eyes flew open just in time to watch Lance’s close. And then they were kissing.

Keith froze. His body stiff and unresponding, his lungs aching as he held his breath. But Lance’s lips were against his, and they were moving slowly, coaxing gently, until Keith’s brain finally kicked back into gear. Instead of shoving Lance away and asking him what the fuck he was doing, he closed his eyes and kissed him back, hands clutched into fists in his lap.

“That… you didn’t say anything,” he croaked, once Lance pulled away.

“Really? Because I thought the kiss spoke for itself,” Lance joked, before promptly plopping down into Keith’s lap. And he had no idea what to do with that. He’d never had a lap full of Lance before.

“Uhh…”

“I like you _back_ , dingus,” Lance scoffed, his hand coming up to cup Keith’s face. “So stop being so embarrassed, okay? And I’ll stop pretending to be happy about you having a crush on Hunk.”

“I don’t have a crush on Hunk,” Keith said, his brain struggling through syrup, slow and still several steps behind.

“Good,” said Lance, before pushing him back into the mattress and kissing him again.


End file.
